2011 Derek Jeter Career Hits 3,001 to 3,003 Game Used Bat, PSA/DNA GU 10....

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Sold on Feb 21, 2015 for:

$22,705.00 Bid Source: Live: Floor bidder

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After 3,000th hit bat is retired for Cooperstown, The Captain completes a performance for the ages

2011 Derek Jeter Career Hits 3,001 to 3,003 Game Used Bat, PSA/DNA GU 10. "I don't think you could have scripted it any better,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after it was over. "This one is already movie-ready.''

But who could possibly believe it?

Even for a superstar player like Derek Jeter, one who had earned nicknames like Mr. November and Captain Clutch with his late-season dramatics on the sport's grandest stage, the events of July 9, 2011 read like the overwrought creation of a hack author. Only the sight of a paralyzed boy rising to his feet to greet Jeter at the steps of the dugout at the end of the game would have made the events seem any more absurdly ordained.

And yet, it happened.

The first five-for-five performance in the history of the new Yankee Stadium. A home run blast to reach 3,000. Then three more hits afterwards, the last to drive in the game-winning run. A day that appears on a very short list of the greatest regular season games in more than a century of New York Yankees baseball.

The lumber used to record numbers 2,999 and 3,000, as we all know, is properly housed for eternity in Cooperstown, where it will be reunited with its owner in the year 2020. Here we present the other Louisville Slugger wielded to such perfection that day, a signature model P72 that ranks among the most significant Jeter artifacts ever made available to the collecting public.

Photographic documentation is the key to the peerless provenance of the bat, leading expert John Taube providing several high resolution images that put the offered bat into Jeter's hands on that historic day. Most easily identified is the v-shaped chip in the knob (since repaired), but the positioning of ball marks and the white baseline paint on the bottom of the knob also perfectly link the bat to the day's photography. Taube was also able to match the lumber to July 10th and July 15th action, the latter suggesting paternity of hits number 3,004 and 3,005 as well before a handle crack (also since repaired) ended the bat's historic term of service.

As to be expected, this very active duty has left behind the signs of substantial game use, with multiple ball marks, stitch and weighted donut impressions, cleat marks and Mota stick. Stamped into the knob are manufacturing date (5/17/2011), length (34.0) and weight (32.0 oz.). A silver sharpie autograph on the barrel (10/10) complete the physical examination.

It was just a year ago, at the 2014 Heritage New York Platinum Night auction, that the bar for elite Jeter gamers was set at $155,350 for his 1996 World Series bat. Clearly this is an offering that shares that rarefied air, and one that is arguably even more effective in serving as a tangible microcosm of the Jeter mystique. LOA from PSA/DNA, GU 10. Steiner holographic authentication sticker (autograph). Full LOA from PSA/DNA. Full LOA from James Spence Authentication.

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